Animal bone souvenir with an inscription acquired by a Kindertransport refugee

Ullrich Remak papers

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Correspondence, personal identification documents, immigration documents, newsletters, and other documents related to the immigration of Ullrich Remak from Breslau, Germany to Scotland on a Kindertransport in 1939, his subsequent life at the Birkenward Hostel in Skelmorlie, Scotland, and efforts by his mother, Nanni Remak, to emigrate from Germany to Palestine. The collection largely consists of material created or collected by Remak in relation to his time at the Birkenward Hostel, with the bulk of this material dating from 1939 to 1942. Although there are government-issued identification cards and correspondence from the Refugee Children’s Aid Committee in Glasgow, most of the materials consist of games and newsletters compiled by Remak and his classmates at the Birkenward Hostel, who belonged to a self-designated “Refugee Club.” Documents related to the club include a booklet with samples of fictitious currency for use by club members, and a handwritten newsletter, circulated among club members (with instructions on each issue to sign off after use and to keep the newsletter clean for the next reader), containing adventure stories, poems, drawings, games, jokes, and news stories, written by club members in either German or English. Other materials related to Remak’s time at Birkenward include a series of file cards with trivia questions and answers, possibly used as a quiz game, and a booklet with his report cards from 1936 to 1939, when he attended the Jüdisches Reform-Realgymnasium, a Jewish school in his native Breslau. The correspondence in this series includes two postcards that he received from his mother in 1939, shortly after his arrival in Britain; two letters from the Refugee Children’s Aid Committee, including one from 1948 congratulating Remak on his success and announcing the closing of Birkenward Hostel; a letter from an aunt (Mrs. Michaelis) in New York dated 1947 and a letter that Remak sent to a former administrator of Birkenward Hostel, hoping to draw up a directory of former residents in order to facilitate meetings and reunions, in 1966. The second series of documents, relating to Remak’s mother, Nanni, documents her efforts to emigrate from Germany following the departure of her son for Britain. This portion of the collection consists primarily of identification documents, letters of reference, birth and death certificates, and similar items that help sketch the outlines of Nanni Remak’s life in Breslau and then in Palestine, but offer no further information about her activities or the path of immigration. Also included is a letter from the International Tracing Service in response to inquiries about the fate of Nanni’s father, Max Loewe, and the death certificate for Ludwig Remak.

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